In this session on preparing a blind, expert photographer Doug Gardner says, “Being a good wildlife photographer is more than just mastering exposure and composition. It’s making the right preparations to get the best photo opportunities. To shoot nesting birds, that means a blind for camouflage.”

Before preparing the blind to photograph the pileated woodpecker, Doug takes a moment to stop and capture some beautiful images of wild horses along a North Carolina beach. Then, it’s off to the trees as wildlife shooter, Jared Lloyd, shows the steps in building a blind. Jared constructs a plywood platform, builds the blind with PVC pipe and camouflage netting, and then positions it on top of his SUV to better access the woodpecker.

In this video on HDR photography, professional photographer and instructor, Tony Sweet, solves the problem of the bright, blown-out, tower window in the old prison. He comments, “Given the wide range of natural light, this is an ideal HDR candidate.” In the first step, Tony takes one aperture priority image, using the average light reading

After capturing the prison yard in extreme lighting conditions, how would you go about processing the yard? Post-production instructor, Tony Sweet, walks you through the steps to achieve the final HDR photograph. Using Photomatix software, he discovers haloing around the clouds and pulls back the strength. In the default setting, Tony makes general adjustments: white

The old prison yard. Outdoor setting. Light sky. Dark stone. Professional photographer and instructor, Tony Sweet, explains, “This is the perfect candidate for an HDR photo, from deep shade to bright sunlight.” You will learn that fast exposures work best in this type of exterior setting in order to minimize ghosting of the moving clouds.

How do you go about HDR processing the prison cell dominated by dark shadows? In this tutorial, post-production instructor, Tony Sweet, will take you through the steps. “I shot very long exposures,” he explains, “and this helped capture the details.” In Photomatix tone mapping, he starts with the default setting and makes the adjustments including